User:GGT/Child soldiers in the PKK

During the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has systematically recruited and kidnapped children. In the 1990s, the PKK was described by Peter Singer as having the largest number of child soldiers in Europe, with a 1998 report estimating 3,000 child soldiers within the organization's ranks. The organization has been accused of abducting more than 2,000 children by Turkish Security Forces. The independent reports by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the United Nations (UN) and the Amnesty International have confirmed the recruitment and use of child soldiers by the organization and its armed wings since the 90's. In 2001, it was reported that the recruitment of the children by the organization has been systematic. Several reports have reported about the organization's battalion, called Tabura Zaroken Sehit Agit, which has been formed mainly for the recruitment of children.

According to the Turkish Security Forces, the PKK has abducted more than 983 children aged between 12 and 17. More than 400 children have fled from the organization and surrendered to the security forces. The United Nations Children's Fund report, published in 2010, saw the recruitment of the children by the PKK concerning and dangerous.

The PKK has engaged in the trafficking of child soldiers across international borders. Recruitment of both boys and girls has taken place in Western Europe, including in Sweden, Germany and France. Media reports in Sweden suggested that the PKK may have recruited 50 children through the 1990s in that country, where it organized recruitment drives at schools. In one instance in July 1998, 17 children of Kurdish immigrants were invited to join a 'summer camp' in northern Sweden. These children were abducted by the PKK to fight in Turkey, and only three had returned by August 1998.

In 2016, the Human Rights Watch, accused the PKK of committing war crimes by recruiting child soldiers in the Shingal region of Iraq and in neighboring countries.

Throughout the Syrian Civil War multiple media outlets including Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the YPG, an organization linked to the PKK, has been recruiting and deploying child soldiers. Despite a claim by the group that it would stop using children, which has been violation of international law, the group has continued the recruitment and use of children.

In 2018, the annual UN report on children in armed conflict found 224 cases of child recruitment by the People's Protection Units and its women's unit in 2017, an almost fivefold increase from the 2016. Seventy-two of the children, nearly one-third, were girls. The group was also reported to had abducted children to enlist them.